Who said ski bums don’t work?
We grabbed a few chairs and learned what it’s like to be a full-time ski bum with a job.
“We live here because we love to play outside,” says Valeria Van Kirk-Busch, senior lift operations manager at Purgatory Resort in southwestern Colorado. Van Kirk-Busch has worked on the mountain for 15 years. “I go through a pair of boots every year. A pair of gloves every year. We ruin all of our stuff and everyday I wake up and I’m like, ‘I cant wait to go to work.’ It’s a lifestyle.”
And when it keeps dumping it’s even better.
We make some turns with her and a few other locals during a nice Colorado storm cycle, and the snow just kept falling.
“I like it when it snows everyday,” she said. “Everybody’s happy.”